Friday, July 21, 2006

GERMAN CHANCELLOR MERKEL GIVES AHMADINEJAD BUM'S RUSHRegarding the letter that the Iranian president wrote to German Chancelloer Merkel requesting her help on his "Jewish problem", I wrote below that Merkel should publicly tell him to go to hell. I then concluded that it's "just not going to happen."

Well, I am happy to say that I misjudged the Chancellor. While she didn't use those exact words, she came close enough:

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday forcefully rejected a letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seeking cooperation with Germany, saying it did not even deserve an answer.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki delivered the letter to the German embassy in Tehran earlier this week. A German government official who saw the letter told Reuters it criticised Israel and said Germany and Iran should cooperate in dealing with Zionism and solving the Palestinian problem.

"He's repeating the old thinking, which is totally unacceptable to us," Merkel told ZDF state television. "Israel's right to exist is a key part of our state policy and he calls this into question time and again; and at the same time our offer - an offer which really gives the Iranian people hope for the future - is not mentioned once," she added.